The Hillel Foundation commemorated the opening of an exhibit about Mildred Fish-Harnack, a UW-Madison aluma who was the only American civilian executed under Nazi rule during World War II, Wednesday.
Fish-Harnack graduated from UW-Madison in 1925 with a master's degree in English literature and later on taught in the English department.
After her time in Wisconsin, Fish-Harnack and her German husband moved to Berlin in 1929. She taught literature and was a passionate resistance fighter against Nazi Germany.
She was sentenced to jail, even as an American, for contributing to the Nazi resistance, but was soon executed by guillotine under Hitler's rule in Berlin in 1943.
The exhibit at the Hillel Center, which honors Mildred Fish-Harnack's time in Madison and Germany, opened Wednesday and will be on display until Dec. 3.
This is the first art exhibit to ever be displayed at the Hillel Center's new building since it's opening last year.
An opening presentation for the showing of ""An Exhibition of The German Resistance"", created by Franz Knubel, was held Wednesday night, where various speakers expressed their thoughts about the new exhibit.
Knubel spoke about the importance of having his exhibit at the Hillel Center. He recounted times of his childhood in Germany during World War II and spoke highly of Fish-Harnack's importance to the war effort.
""What I traced from this great woman, who stands for millions of men and women, who were killed by the Nazis, is now displayed here at Hillel,"" said Knubel.
Shareen Blair Brysac, author of ""Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra"" spoke about the creation of her book concerning Fish-Harnack's life in Germany.
Brysac, a former CBS network producer, and her husband Karl Meyer, a Daily Cardinal alumus, visited the Topographie des Terrors in Berlin during the late ‘80s. That was when Brysac first learned of Fish-Harnack from a photograph of her at the museum. She later became more intrigued when she discovered Fish-Harnack was a close family friend of her husband's parents.
A presentation by Brysac, ""Mildred Harnack: A Portrait in Words"" will take place Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the Pyle Center.
